In Handan, Hebei, three junior high school students brutally murdered their classmate, who they had been bullying for a long time, and buried the body in an abandoned vegetable greenhouse.
The most discussed issue in public opinion is the legal one:
This is a heinous case where three minors killed another minor. Should these juvenile delinquents be severely punished or saved?
What is intentionally or unintentionally ignored are the shocking social issues behind it:
This is a bloody tragedy of three left-behind children killing another left-behind child, and behind it is the gray life of 10.86 million left-behind children in China (2023 data).
How did the three little devils, who committed the murder, become so twisted and depraved?
The three suspects are also three left-behind children.
According to reports from Jinyun News, one of the three suspects is from Beigao Village, one is from Jize Village, and one is from Zhangzhuang Village. Their parents are all migrant workers, and they usually live with their grandparents. After the incident, they haven’t seen their families for days.
Many people online are speculating that the burial pit was so deep that it would be difficult for three children to dig it alone, and it is likely that adults were involved. I haven’t investigated and can’t draw conclusions, but based on common sense, we can know that in such a “meaningless” murder case, if any adult in the families of the three little devils knew about it, it would be impossible for it to happen. If the parents knew about the murder, it would be impossible to bury the body in an abandoned greenhouse only 100 meters away from the victim’s home.
What really needs to be questioned is, the three children were already so crazy that they joined forces to kill someone, why did their parents (grandparents) know nothing, or… were they powerless?
Looking at the current situation of the vast majority of left-behind children, they are separated from their parents and raised by the elderly, who basically only care about food and clothing. Some elderly people who are themselves ill may not even be able to take care of the left-behind children’s food and clothing…
Helping children with homework? Impossible. Providing psychological counseling and comfort when children encounter setbacks and confusion? Don’t know what that is. As for guiding the children’s values correctly, it doesn’t exist. Even daily communication may not be done well, so how can we expect grandparents to discover and stop the little devils from killing?
As for the victim, before being killed, he had been subjected to bullying and harm for a long time, and was locked in a labor room. For such a long time, with so many things happening, why didn’t his parents open their arms to protect him?
Yes, although there is a distance between life and death, the victim and the three little devils are actually in the same predicament. According to media reports, the victim, Wang Ziyao, had divorced parents. He usually lived with his grandparents, and his father worked in another place. The child was reported missing, and they couldn’t find him, so they rushed home.
The victim is also a left-behind child.
After the child’s death, the father wrote in pain:
“Dad took you to see the sea for the first time and asked if you liked it? You said you did. Since then, Dad would pick you up to play every summer vacation. I still feel like I’m in a dream. Dad can’t take you to see the sea anymore, my poor child…”
Someone in the comments section retorted, this father knows how to feel sorry for his child now, what was he doing before? Why didn’t he keep him by his side?
It’s always easy to retort, but reality is too difficult. If parents could let their children study in the city where they work, how many parents would be willing to leave their children in the countryside with the elderly?
According to statistics released by the Ministry of Education, in 2023, there were 6.9 million left-behind children in primary school and 3.96 million left-behind children in junior high school, totaling 10.8 million children who were in a long-term state of separation from their parents. (Source: Ministry of Education website)
Don’t the parents of these tens of millions of left-behind children want to bring their children to the city where they work to study? Ask the Beijing Municipal Education Commission, the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission, the Guangzhou Municipal Education Commission, or even the Shijiazhuang Municipal Education Commission in Hebei Province, can the children of migrant workers enroll and take the middle school entrance exams in these cities without discrimination?
The most outrageous thing is that a certain area, which should be the best in the country, even wants to abolish and drive away the schools for children of migrant workers that specifically accept left-behind children and completely give up the local middle school entrance exam opportunities…
Some media also interviewed experts in a serious manner, asking what impact long-term separation from parents would have on the psychological health of left-behind children. Does this even need to be asked?!
I can guess with my eyes closed that certain vested interests will definitely jump out and say that the educational resources in big cities are also limited and cannot accommodate so many left-behind children pouring in to study.
Then let’s look at the reality:
In Beijing, even the kindergartens of central enterprises are starting to enroll students from outside due to insufficient student sources.
In Shanghai, there is a wave of kindergartens closing down, and many primary schools are closing or merging.
In Guangzhou, where I live, private and public schools have closed one after another:
You used to say there weren’t enough school places, but now, in this situation, you’re still using the excuse of insufficient educational resources?!
Be a human being!
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